1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of policy management for networks. In particular, the present invention relates to dynamic policy-setting based on changing network conditions.
2. Background of the Invention
Wireless communications devices, such as cellular phones, have become tremendously popular. It is estimated that there were 3.3 billion cellular phone subscriptions at the end of 2007. Close to 80% of the world now enjoys cellular coverage, a figure only increasing as new networks appear. Along with the abundance of cellular phones comes the demand for new and improved services. It is no longer enough to just place and receive calls, users want it all.
Cellular phones today often are equipped to handle many types of services and applications. Users can now accomplish many tasks that they previously were forced to do from their home or office, including check their e-mail, surf the internet, and so forth. WIFI capabilities allow users to connect to the internet where wireless access is available. Users have now become very dependent upon these services and feel the need for access all throughout the day. Many individuals no longer have land lines in their homes, instead relying on cellular service. With the fast speed of business, businesses feel the need to have constant contact with their employees, regardless of their location. Calls and e-mails can be sent from most anywhere, allowing even the traveling businessman to stay on top of his work. However, these services may be limited to certain geographical areas, either by their network coverage or available networks in the area, and may be limited by their signal strength.
New networks increase the number of areas with available service. As many newer phones are equipped for WIFI access, WIFI hotspots allow for these phones to connect to the internet. Ad hoc networks such as these WIFI hotspots are appearing with more and more frequency as businesses and even individuals allow for secure and unsecured use. With the emergence of BLUETOOTH, areas with access to BLUETOOTH are also becoming increasingly common. Additionally, the increasing prevalence of femtocells increases areas of network availability. Femtocells, or Access Point Base Stations, connect to service providers' networks via broadband and allow service providers to extend service indoors, especially in areas of limited access. In the future, 4G networks will become prevalent as well. These networks will be the next complete evolution in wireless communications.
Dual or multi-mode devices, however, represent a particular challenge to current policy management methods. The proliferation of wireless devices with varying applications (data, voice, video, short message service, pagers, music download, gaming etc.) all competing for bandwidth connections to the wireless network creates a dynamic problem especially if no priorities are established for each service/application type under varying network conditions. All applications will attempt to hog the available bandwidth concurrently by autonomous connections to their respective servers for notifications, updates and communication transactions. These applications may cause e-mail to send and receive slower, texts to not appear, slow web browsing, and so on. Static policy management is currently available for networks. With this type of management, a master user of a network can set bandwidth limits for applications and other users that use the network. Note that this policy is ‘static’ in the sense that once network policy is set by the user, this policy is applied regardless of the current conditions of the network. However, static methods of policy management would not be optimal for a portable wireless device with various network modes that could roam into sectors of varying bandwidth. Many of these new phones are multi-mode and have various network interfaces such as EDGE, GPRS, wCDMA, WiFi, WiMAX, etc. These new phones benefit from a more flexible scheme of policy management versus, for example, a scheme whereby a certain application was always restricted to a certain small portion of the available bandwidth. Policy management for wireless devices is currently just a best effort. All services compete with each other for equal priority. A user of the device, however, may not view the services equally. The dynamic methods of policy management known in the art are not suited to portable devices where changing bandwidth conditions must be monitored at the level of the device itself and not only at fixed network policy enforcement points.
Additionally, network security may be an important factor in network policy decisions. Identity theft has become a common tactic for criminals these days, and one of the largest sources of identity theft is through the internet. To avoid vulnerability, if the user is connected to an unsecured network, the user may wish not to use certain applications which may contain personal information.
What is needed is a way to allow a user to select priority for applications on the user's mobile device which adjust based upon available bandwidth and the security of the network.